SIX
Vaudeville Theatre
til 29th Oct 2023

“Since its debut outing at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, SIX has solidified its global reputation as a musical theatre phenomenon. In addition to the West End production, the show is currently touring across the UK and Australia, with two concurrent productions travelling across North America. The UK Tour will be jetting off to Korea to open the show in March. The show will then play Amsterdam and Rotterdam in September. It also continues on Broadway, where it won 2 Tony Awards, 4 Drama Desk Awards, and 3 Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Musical earlier this year.
In June 2022, producers of SIX reunited the original West End cast and the production played three open-air performances at Hampton Court Palace in front of a total audience of 10,000 people, with the production also being recorded at the Vaudeville Theatre for a future release date.  
The global success of the show’s score also continues, having amassed over 500 million streams and 3 billion views on TikTok, with the Original Studio Cast Recording achieving Gold status, and a Broadway album, recorded live on their opening night”

Review by Richard Lambert, 5 Stars

SIX was spotted and picked up by producer Kenny Wax who facilitated the production going stratospherical. SIX has now become an international phenomena.

The Vaudeville Theatre on the Strand is described as their forever home, and this does indeed seem very likely. Next door to the Adelphi Theatre which was home to Chicago for many years, there are similarities in this being a concert rather than a full musical. However, new casting has blown the roof off the vocals. An incredibly polished sound system and operators keep it clean and fresh and glue the Queens and the Technical all together.

Expecting to be “belted and riffed-at” for 70 mins? I did. But don’t worry, this isn’t that at all. SIX Queens sing their way through the musical numbers flawlessly! With a live band of 4 musicians. What you have on stage are 10 people living their dreams in a show that’s unrecognisable from it’s origins in a hotel room at the Edinburgh Fringe many moons ago.

The set echoes Victorian architecture with its curved vault window structures. The Tudor style, which would be authentic for SIX, would be more box-square. By making it predominantly curved it is indeed very ecclestiastic, splendid and magnificent. A brilliant environment created for a show about a man who had SIX wives who also changed the law in regard to “the Church”. Henry VIII had been ex-communicated from the Catholic Church at which point he changed the law to make himself Supreme head of the Church. There is LED Tape edging every orifice, all pixel-mapped to allow colourful images to display. Several significant Church symbols appropriately display and there are multi-layers to show the dimension and depth of the space. Brilliant Set Design by Emma Bailey!

Stunning visuals from the lighting team headed up by lighting designer Tim Deiling. All time-coded and sync’d to never miss a beat, quite literally. Cleverly chosen lighting positions allow the Set to remain central focus with the lights punching through. A good mix of lighting fixtures, old and traditional, used by a master of his craft showing a perfect mesh between the sound, the set and the story. A gold kaleidoscopic which builds in crescendo to an explosive gold and confetti cannons all so fitting for the SIX Queens finale.

Carrie-Anne Ingrouille has created exciting choreography which is executed precisely by the Queens with military precision. The choreography is predominant almost continuousaly for the entire show.

Of course the often unsung heroes of any production are the Directors who have allowed this show to evolve and massaged it into shape: Directors Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage along with Associate Directors Grace Taylor and Alexandra Spencer-Jones.

You’ll find all the ingredients at SIX for a wonderful and unforgettable 70 minutes!

Photos by Pamela Raith
Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky as Catherine of Aragon
Baylie Carson as Anne Boleyn
Claudia Kariuki as Jane Seymour
Dionne Ward-Anderson as Anna of Cleves
Koko Basigara as Katherine Howard
Roxanne Couch as Catherine Parr
SIX is co-directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage
written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss
choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille
Emma Bailey (Set Design)
Gabriella Slade (Costume Design)
Tim Deiling (Lighting Design)
Paul Gatehouse (Sound Design)
The score features orchestrations by Tom Curran with music supervision and vocal arrangements by Joe Beighton. Casting for SIX is by Pearson Casting. SIX is produced by Kenny Wax, Wendy & Andy Barnes and George Stiles